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Two reported dead in Kansas Jewish center shooting

April 13, 2014

Two people were reported dead and one injured Sunday in a possible anti-Semitic shooting attack in Kansas Sunday.

According to the latest information, one of the unidentified victims was slain at the Overland Park Jewish Community Center while the second was killed at the nearby Village Shalom retirement home, both in Overland Park.

Overland Park, the second biggest city in Kansas, is a short drive away from the state’s main Jewish concentration in Kansas City.

According to Kansas’s KSHB 41 Action News, police were holding one suspect in custody, who was reported as yelling "heil Hitler" as he was detained.

According to local news outlet KMBC, a third victim is currently in critical condition. The entire JCC campus was locked down by police and at least one person was detained by police in connection to the shooting.

One witness was quoted by KSHB 41 Action News as saying that a man, presumably the shooter, had aimed a gun at him before shooting the windows of his vehicle.

The Jerusalem Post was unable to reach the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City for further comment.

The shooting comes only weeks after the Anti-Defamation League released a report describing an increase in physical assaults against Jews despite an overall 19 percent decrease of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States.

In its Annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents, the ADL reported that there 751 incidents in 41 states and Washington, DC — among the lowest number since 1979, when the ADL began collecting data. The number of incidents has been steadily declining for the past decade. JTA and Jpost.com Staff contributed to this report